Dan Rather and O.J.

In the May issue of Texas Monthly, journalist Joe Hagan “gets to the bottom of the greatest untold story in modern Texas politics” — Dan Rather’s 2004 report, which relied on documents ultimately proved to be forgeries, that George W. Bush received preferential treatment to avoid the Vietnam draft and dodge his duties in the Texas Air National Guard.

As Hagan notes:

“This story, taken as a whole, isn’t particularly damning; it was typical for young men of Bush’s social standing. But it fundamentally undermines an element of Bush’s political identity: the ‘badass’ jet pilot for whom flying was a ‘lifetime pursuit,’ as he once put it.”

What made the story a media sensation, a disaster for CBS and ultimately led to the downfall of Dan Rather was its reliance on the so-called Killian documents. About this, Rather is still living in a fantasy world:

“I believed at the time that the documents were genuine,” Rather says, “and I’ve never ceased believing that they are genuine.”

“Since the report,” Hagan adds, “Rather has hired lawyers and private investigators to get to the bottom of the mystery, to no avail.” Because there is no mystery.

Back in 2004, the president of CBS News acknowledged that the network had been “deliberately misled” about the provenance of the documents. An independent panel found that “efforts at authentication failed miserably” and affirmed the analysis of a forensic document examiner who “60 Minutes” producers had contacted that the documents “were not authentic.”

Rather might want to consider hiring Texas private investigator William Dear, who after 18 years claims he has finally found the “real” killer of O.J. Simpson’s wife Nicole and friend Ron Goldman. Or perhaps he should stop tarnishing his legacy and simply admit the truth.